UK scale up Clear Review secures £2.6m Series A

HR tech scale-up Clear Review has today announced a £2.6m Series A investment led by AlbionVC with Mercia Technologies also participating. The raise follows the £500,000 initial funding which took place in March 2018 from Mercia Technologies.

The startup’s mission is “to enable individuals and teams to achieve what matters most to the organisation and themselves.” Its cloud-based performance development platform, which promotes frequent employee feedback and continuous employee-manager conversations, has experienced rapid growth since launching in 2016, with more than 200 customers adopting its new performance management technology. Key customers include CYBG/Virgin Money, Ricoh, Kennedys and The Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

Founder and CEO Stuart Hearn commented: “With the war for talent raging as strongly as ever, performance management is quickly moving up both HR and the C-suite’s priority list.

“Clear Review’s simple yet powerful user experience is worlds apart from the outdated performance module on legacy suite solutions. Market awareness and adoption of new performance management models is increasing dramatically and we’re confident the recent funding will allow us to take things to the next level at just the right time.”

Clear Review has aimed to differentiate itself from its competitors by prioritising engagement and adoption over complexity. The company has seen strong interest from the US market, which now represents 20% of annual revenue. Chief Revenue Officer, Daniel Anticich believes “the same clarity of focus within the product and unrivalled simplicity of user experience has allowed us to consistently win in the US against competitors.”

London-based AlbionVC is a leading investor in B2B SaaS companies with over £450m invested across more than 40 fast growing technology companies.

Emil Gigov, Partner, AlbionVC said: “Businesses are increasingly disappointed with their performance management tools and processes and the impact that ineffective annual appraisals are having on organisational performance.

“Clear Review’s flexible software solution and thought leadership in continuous performance management are delivering on employees’ rising expectations of continuous feedback and agile goals. We’re excited to support Clear Review in their next stage of growth.”

The funds will be used to accelerate product development, build out a US presence, and consolidate Clear Review’s position as the UK category leader in a new breed of performance management technology.